Outdoor Furniture #10: Patio Planter Boxes - Day 1

I started a new project today. I’m building two large patio planter boxes. The final dimensions should be close to 41” long x 24” wide x 20” high. I’m working from Woodsmith’s Outdoor Woodworking book. Here’s a link to their website:

The diagrams for this project are pretty detailed and that’s a good thing because there is no cut list provided. I had to read through this plan a few times to make sure I found the correct dimensions for each piece. I also wrote out my own cut list for the larger version of the planters so I knew how many 2×4’s to purchase.

I’m changing a few things about the plan. I have some 11/32 bead board that I want to use up, so I’m planning on making the panels from that rather than trying to find half inch thick board stock to use. This saved me quite a bit on the cost of the project too. All I needed to purchase were the 10 2×4x96” kiln dried douglas fir studs for the legs and frames.

I think that I’ll be dropping some potted vegetables that I’m growing in my courtyard into the completed boxes, so I don’t need to be very fancy with the construction of the inside box bottoms either. I’ll probably just put in some cleats and a few cross beams to hold the pots up a the height that works best. I still have plenty of white paint left from my Adirondack Furniture build, but I need to decide on an accent color for the panels.

After I got all of my cross cuts done, I started on the three piece legs and then the rails and stiles for the end and side panels.

It seemed like I was cutting tenons and dadoes all day long. This is where I stopped this afternoon. The “table” that these pieces are sitting on in this photo is actually a section of the bead board that will be cut down to make up the panels.

All I have left to cut now are the laps in the top frame pieces, the panels, and the quarter-round trim. I plan to glue the three-piece legs together in the morning and hopefully fine tune all of the tenons so I can dry fit the frames together and get an idea of how the final assembly will look.

Now that the bulk of the cutting is done, this project should go together pretty quickly. I don’t think the painting will be quite as tedious as the Adirondack Chairs.

-- "There seems to be a black hole in my garage that swallows up pencils and tape measures as soon as I put them down."